Is there any way to automate exploration?

[White Shadow]

Or at the very least, queue up a series of moves for my ships to travel? I love this game, but for some reason my spatial orientation is not the greatest and it gets confusing to remember which star systems I have explored and which ones I have not. Thanks!

[Cyber SGB]

Yes, there is a tech that you can research. Automated Exploration Protocols in physics.

[sierra_one_]

There is a physics technology (Automated Exploration Protocols) that you can unlock fairly early in the game, but you can also hold down the Shift key and right-click/survey system different solar systems, and it will queue these surveys up. Unsurveyed systems will have a grey name, surveyed systems will have a white name.

[White Shadow]

Originally posted by Sajuuk-Sie:

There is a physics technology (Automated Exploration Protocols) that you can unlock fairly early in the game, but you can also hold down the Shift key and right-click/survey system different solar systems, and it will queue these surveys up. Unsurveyed systems will have a grey name, surveyed systems will have a white name.

Thank you for this information. However, I am not referring to surveying systems; rather, use my military ships as scouts just to see if there are potentially colonizable planets in those systems. The shift+right click move order still helps as it works with military ships as well. This will make life a lot easier. Is there any way to tell which systems you have moved a military ship through? Or is the only way to know for sure is by surveying it?

[Yaldabaoth]

Originally posted by Wilhelm Steinitz:

Thank you for this information. However, I am not referring to surveying systems; rather, use my military ships as scouts just to see if there are potentially colonizable planets in those systems. The shift+right click move order still helps as it works with military ships as well. This will make life a lot easier. Is there any way to tell which systems you have moved a military ship through? Or is the only way to know for sure is by surveying it?

When you move ANY ship through a system it will get an icon if there is a colonizable planet. You can't colonize before surveying though.

[sierra_one_]

Originally posted by Wilhelm Steinitz:

Thank you for this information. However, I am not referring to surveying systems; rather, use my military ships as scouts just to see if there are potentially colonizable planets in those systems. The shift+right click move order still helps as it works with military ships as well. This will make life a lot easier. Is there any way to tell which systems you have moved a military ship through? Or is the only way to know for sure is by surveying it?

Sorry, assumed you were talking about science ships! Any system that has been visited by one of your ships will have at least medium 'intelligence' (I forget the specific word the game uses). The potentially colonisable planet icon will appear next to a system when you have medium intelligence on it. Systems with low intelligence have not been visited by one of your ships, and you can find out your level of intelligence on a specific system by hovering the cursor over it.

[Vardis]

It's annoying that if you're close enough to scan a system to get the planet info and if there are hostiles, the game won't remember that for you until you actually go into the system.